October 22, 2012

California Orionids Meteorite Lands On Preacher’s Roof

The meteorite which exploded over the San Francisco Bay area last week did not only strike attention as it fired across the sky, but it also struck the home of resident Lisa Webber.

The meteorite erupted through the sky last week in San Francisco and was witnessed by several residents in the area.

While this was going on, Webber, unaware of the incoming meteor, said she had heard a thud on her roof but didn't think too much of it.

After all the media attention the sight of the meteor in the air garnished, Webber started thinking of that sound that hit her home.

Three days after the object fell onto her roof, she used a magnet to touch a rock she found in her yard to see if it would stick.

A neighbor climbed onto Webber's roof and found an indentation left by the meteorite.

Peter Jenniskens, a leading meteor hunter at the Seti Institute in Mountain View, made a trip out to Webber's house and confirmed that the rock was from the meteor that San Francisco residents witnessed.

"The significance of this find is that we can now hope to use our fireball trajectory to trace this type of meteorite back to its origins in the asteroid belt," Jenniskens wrote on his group's website.

Pieces of meteorite can be valuable to collectors, but Webber has not determined what she plans to do with her space rock.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Webber's husband is a pastor at Presbyterian Church of Novato, and that the meteor hit the roof of his study.

"It's wonderful. It's like the heavens coming down, and history and this thing probably came from an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter - I mean, how cool is that?" Webber, an administrative nurse at UCSF Medical Center, told SFGate.